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There are no hospitals in space. The closest A&E is back on Earth, and astronauts can't exactly jump in a cab to get there. So what happens if the sun burps out a massive blast of radiation while an astronaut is space-amblin' by?

It's time to talk about the second letter in NASA: Aeronautics. Yes, NASA does mind-blowing things in outer space, but they also want you to get to your family reunion in one piece. NASA is making planes smarter. Smart enough to be flyable even when they're falling apart.

A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardised the entire project. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the hundreds of millions of pounds it was going to take to make things right. And then they found out how to fix it for the cost of an extra value meal.